Authorities investigate security breaches at Newark, JFK airports

Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger Newark Liberty International Airport is shown in this file photo.

NEWARK — A pair of bizarre trespassing incidents at two of the region’s major airports, including one in Newark on Saturday, have heightened concerns about airport perimeter security.

Early Saturday night, officials said a man with a knife in his pocket jumped over a retractable barrier at a vehicle gate near Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport, then dashed onto the tarmac before eventually being tackled by a police officer. Xiang Xun Shao, 39, was charged with defiant trespass and possession of a weapon, officials said.

On Tuesday morning, officials said a naked man swimming in Jamaica Bay off John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens, was able to wade ashore near the airport’s main fuel tank farm, despite the airport’s PIDS, or Perimeter Intrusion Detection System. The swimmer, 30-year-old Greg Rodriguez, was charged with trespassing after police eventually happened upon him while passing by on patrol.

“With a rocket launcher he could have taken out a couple of planes,” said Paul Nunziato, president of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association.

Both suspects were taken to local hospitals for psychiatric evaluations after their arrest. Nunziato seized on the incidents as examples of Port Authority management’s dangerous overreliance on civilians or faulty technology and refusal to post officers in vulnerable locations.

“You can say the union’s got a separate agenda,” Nunziato said, anticipating criticism that his real concern was preserving union jobs. “Yea, I’ve got a broad agenda: I want to have radios that work, I want to have police cars that work, and I want to have enough bodies to ensure protection.”

Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman, said the Newark intruder was apprehended after the guard followed proper procedure by calling police, while insisting the skinny dipper at JFK did not make it into a restricted area. Nonetheless, Coleman said the incidents were under review.

“Obviously, anytime there is a breach of security it’s a major concern,” Coleman said. “And it’s something we need to look at.”

Last year, PBA officials began speaking out publicly at Port Authority meetings, urging board members to bolster police patrols at airports, bridges and tunnels, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. In April, Chairman David Samson led the board in authorizing an agency-wide security review, a $300,000 job awarded to the Washington-based Chertoff Group in May. Nunziato said he’s hopeful the review will spark changes, “before something bad happens.”